Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wind factoids

“In July 2006, wind turbines in CA produced power at only about 10% of their capacity; in Texas, one of the most promising states for wind energy, the windmills produced electricity at about 17% of their rated capacity” Source: “Gusher of Lies” by Robert Bryce

“One notorious example is a wind farm in Altamont Pass, CA. In their 27 year lifetime, these wind turbines have dealt a grizzly end to upward of 130,000 birds. And these aren’t just plain everyday birds. For example between 75 and 116 golden eagles are sliced to death each year.”

“Two of the biggest wind farms in Europe have 159 turbines and cover thousands of acres between the, but together take a year to produce less than four days output from a single conventional power station.”

- Source: Forbes, June 16, 2008, H. Sterling Burnett, analyst at NCPA

Texas passed California and is now number one state in the nation in installed wind power capacity. Source: Jerry Patterson, Land Commissioner. Texas Wind Power. Patterson has leased offshore facilities for Offshore wind farms.

If you want to know why T. Boone Pickens in Amarillo is excited about wind power, look here:


1 comment:

Randy Samuelson said...

T Boone is doing what all entreprenuers wish they had the capital to do...make money on the environmental movement. T Boone owns a lot of land in the Panhandle and will therefore make a lot of profit from wind turbines.

I will point you to a TPPF research article A Note of Caution as Wind Energy Whips Through Texas, by Drew Thornley, concerning the high cost of wind power. It is good reading.